Japan balances free trade with protection for farmers

Japan's compulsion to protect its politically influential and culturally iconic agricultural sector is always a serious stumbling block when Tokyo attempts to negotiate free trade agreements.

So it was to be expected that protests and intense lobbying from Japan's highly protected farming and fishing industries would punctuate the run-up to Friday's announcement by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that his government will join the 11 countries already negotiating the free trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).